PUE and DCiE monitoring
The importance of monitoring data center efficiency and the benefits it offers
Monitoring specialists
Spook's award winning remote monitoring service called OmniWatch measures realtime efficiency levels within data centers. Measuring PUE (Power usage effectiveness) and DCiE (Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency); OmniWatch presents efficiency readings in an easy to use real-time digital dashboard.
Spook and OmniWatch was voted Specialist Technology Company of the Year and Most Innovative Solution of the Year at the annual UK CIR Business Continuity Awards.
What is PUE and DCiE?
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and DCiE (Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency) are industry standard benchmarks comparing the overall energy used for a data centers infrastructure versus its energy used for its existing IT load.
By measuring PUE and DCiE presents an efficiency score and sets a testing framework for the data center to repeat and compare. By continually comparing scores, data center managers can verify the impact of what should be the focus of their ongoing efficiency efforts in order to gain greater cost savings and efficiencies in the future.
At any given time, they are comparing the power currently used for the IT equipment needs with the power used by the infrastructure as a whole which keeps that IT equipment cooled, powered, backed-up and protected.
| PUE | DCiE | Level of efficiency |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 33% | Very inefficient |
| 2.5 | 40% | Inefficient |
| 2.0 | 50% | Average |
| 1.5 | 67% | Efficient |
| 1.2 | 83% | Very efficient |
The benefits of PUE and DCiE monitoring
Knowing what the efficiency figures in realtime allows users to highlight areas for improvement in order to to achieve better ratings.
The objective is to ensure that the maximum possible percentage of power utilised in a data center is actually used by IT equipment and the minimum by supporting equipment such as AC units and other peripheral equipment.
Understanding PUE and DCiE is only the beginning. Efficiency gains should be regularly calculated, preferably in realtime. By doing this users can check how well they are doing on different days of the week, month and year. The longer the period of analysis the better understanding of efficiency gains can be calculated. This is particularly important as it identifies equipment overheads that may be missed if the measurements are made infrequently. OmniWatch stores all readings in perpetuity making long term analysis easy.
Try our free PUE and DCiE calculator
Spook is an approved Endorser of the European Code of Conduct for Data Centers
The Data Centres Energy Efficiency Code of Conduct was established some years ago in response to increasing energy consumption in data centers and the need to reduce the related environmental, economic and energy supplies.
The aim is to inform and stimulate data center operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner without impacting the mission critical function of data center facility.
The Code of Conduct aims to achieve this by improving the understanding of energy demand within the data center, raising awareness and recommending energy efficient best practice and targets.
OmniWatch key features
Cloud based
OmniWatch is cloud based and is accessed via any internet enabled device.
Digital dashboards
OmniWatch dashboards provide interactive and intuitive access to sensor readings 24/7.
Scaleable installations
Totally scaleable from a handful of sensors to a global solution monitoring 1000s of devices.
Trend analysis
Sensor readings are held in perpetuity; providing accurate historical trend analysis.
Automated reporting
Comprehensive reports can be scheduled to be auto emailed daily, weekly and monthly.
We had a requirement to improve the accuracy and reduce the time in the way we calculated the efficiency of our data center. The relevant information needed to do this was available on various (Schneider) power meters located around the data center but it was a laborious task to manually collect the readings in order to calculate matters.
Spook configured OmniWatch to automatically calculate PUE and DCiE based on the existing power metrics we already monitored on our energy meters.
We now monitor our power efficiency in realtime are now in a position to become more energy efficient and to reduce our carbon footprint.
Capita Business Services - An international business outsourcing company.
Spook monitors a wide range of power devices
New to monitoring
We help organisations start monitoring projects from scratch. We have a wealth of experience that is free and helpful in creating an informed approach to monitoring.
We are also resellers to industry leading sensor and equipment manufacturers and can recommend the most appropriate hardware and sensors to fit any size monitoring project.
We had been considering monitoring for a while but did not have the resource or the knowledge to fully understand how to go about doing things from scratch.
We approached Spook as they have lots of experience in looking independently at monitoring projects. They recommended and provided the most appropriate hardware and sensors for us.
The sensors arrived pre-configured and were implemented on OmniWatch by Spook before we installed them.
Additional monitoring
Many of our customers have tried monitoring for themselves.
This ranges from institutions that rely on equipment onboard data loggers and communications cards; to organisations that have started monitoring projects but need help to extend monitoring to new areas and/or implement a central monitoring solution.
We needed a remote monitoring service that did not require an on premise PC and was independent of our network.
Spook provided pre-configured cellular routers for each of our five locations across the UK. The whole project was a simple plug-and-play solution with no involvement from us.
We had been considering monitoring for a while but did not have the resource or the knowledge to fully understand how to go about doing things.
When we Googled the various areas of interest we got more confused.
We approached Spook as they have a different outlook to simply buying hardware and sensors. Thankfully we now have a fully installed, joined up monitoring solution.
We had a series of climate monitors installed in our server rooms. Due to a change in our security policy we needed a remote monitoring service that did not require an on premise PC and was independent of our network.
Spook suggested a technology upgrade and provided pre-configured cellular routers for each of our five server locations across the UK. The whole project was a simple plug-and-play solution with no involvement from us.
Get in touch with Spook
Please contact us if you wish for further information on how Spook can help with your environmental and power monitoring needs.